


Domino

by Kaddppa



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: uhhh I just wanted to write a little drabble of how Dean ended up in New Vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 05:17:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20540738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaddppa/pseuds/Kaddppa
Summary: Almost as soon as the elevator started moving, Yes Man’s voice crackled through the speakers, “Sorry to be a bother, but it looks like we’ve had a pretty serious security scare at The Tops! Someone just about broke into the safe! The one that holds all the caps and guns! That safe! Mr. Swank is waiting down there for you to check it out.”Or How Dean Domino was discovered in New Vegas.





	Domino

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this is messy, I know the quality degraded after the first half but it's 1:30 in the morning and I was getting lazy, but still wanted to get this finished.

The Mojave afternoon crawled by slowly, Mel had already checked up with Yes Man who happily informed her that everything on The Strip was running smoothly, apart from two NCR Rangers who’d gotten a little rowdy at the Gomorrah and caused a scene.

Mel sat by the window in the cocktail lounge, the afternoon sun warming her skin as she blinked lazily, she’d given up on reading some boring old Pre-War book when she’d started nodding off halfway through a page.

She yawned and stretched out her arms, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she sat up straighter and looked out the window to The Strip bellow, the dizzying height had taken a while to get used to, but now she found comfort looking down at the place.  
Sure it was known for some pretty shady stuff, but now that she and Yes Man were in charge it was safe, well, safe enough, the strange going ons in some of the casinos had been dealt with, so now there was no threat of losing guests to cannibalistic chefs or massive gun shipments being brought in.

With a sigh, Mel heaved herself up from the couch, moving towards the elevator, it was highly unusual to have a day as quiet as this in the Mojave, so she decided she may as well take Rex out for a sniff around.  
Almost as soon as the elevator started moving, Yes Man’s voice crackled through the speakers, “Sorry to be a bother, but it looks like we’ve had a pretty serious security scare at The Tops! Someone just about broke into the safe! The one that holds all the caps and guns! That safe! Mr. Swank is waiting down there for you to check it out.”

“Alright, tell him I’ll be down in a bit,” Mel replied.  
After they’d gotten all the casinos straightened out, she’d insisted on checking on any problems they might have in the future, keeping herself, and other casinos in the loop so as to watch out for troublemakers.

A quick stop to the presidential suite to pick up Rex and they were off down the street, Rex pestering some of the tourists insisting on getting any food they were carrying or at least a pat on the head.  
Mel held the door to The Tops open for Rex to enter first, the dog sniffing around the legs of some of the guests before stopping by Swank, who was waiting by the front desk.

“Hey, Swank,” Mel said with a small smile, “heard you got a problem.” 

Swank nodded, “Yeah we got a problem, caught some bastard trying his best to hack the terminal to the main safe, failed though, got no idea how he got past security, only reason we found him before he left ‘cause he swore like a sailor when the terminal locked him out. I don’t know what he’d have done if he’d actually gotten in.”

“Alright, where is he?”

“Give me a sec,” Swank said before he left through one of the maintenance doors to the back of the building.

Mel watched Rex silently while she waited, he was studying the other guests, ears pricked and eyes wide.  
A minute later she heard a commotion, she moved her gaze towards the source of the noise and saw Swank, strolling back towards her, behind him were two security guards, each holding the arm of a very pissed off man, cussing them out as loud as he could.

It took her a moment, but the way the man pronounced his words sounded very familiar to her ears, and when she caught sight of him, she knew why.  
He wore the same dirty tux as when they had last seen each other, sunglasses miraculously staying on his face despite his lack of things to hold them up with.

“Get your filthy hands off of me I can walk myself out! Do know who I am? I am Dean-“

“Domino,” Mel said, a lopsided smile making its way onto her face.

The ghoul stopped struggling against security and his head snapped towards her, “well finally someone who knows talent when it’s standing right in front of them, to whom should I make out the-“ The ghoul stopped partway through his sentence and his mouth snapped shut before a smile slowly spread across his face, “Courier?”

Swank looked towards Mel, raising an eyebrow,” you know him?”

“Yes, he’s uh, a friend, we met a while ago in the Sierra Madre,” Mel replied.

“Wait, hold up, you’ve been to the Sierra Madre?” Swank asked, his eyes growing wide, “I’ve heard that that place is fuckin’ packed with gold, what's it like?”

“Horrible.”  
“Amazing.”

Both Dean and Mel replied at the same time and Mel shot Dean a look.

“Alright never mind, what do you wanna do with him?” Swank asked, nodding towards Dean who was scowling at one of the security guards.

“Let him go, increase security by the safe, an-“

“Let him go?” Swank asked, “he almost broke into the safe, the one full of caps and guns, and you say let him go?”

Mel was quiet for a second, before pursing her lips and nodding, “a night at the NCR station should be enough of a warning. Really I can keep him under control.”

“What!” Dean snapped, “I don’t know if you know this, but friends don’t usually put their friends in jail.”

“Friends don’t usually try and steal from casinos on their friend’s Strip,” Mel said raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I didn’t know you were in charge!”

Swank waved a hand, “alright, alright, enough, you’re disrupting the guests, and by you I mean your dog,” he nodded back to Rex who had grown bored waiting for Mel and decided to take a pool cue straight from the hands of an elderly man who was cursing as he tried to snatch it back.

Mel smiled at Swank, “sorry,” she said, “we’ll go, I can take Dean with me down to the station.”

“Alright,” Swank said, “make sure he doesn’t come back into my casino or it’ll be longer than a night he spends with the pigs.”  
Mel nodded, calling Rex and taking Dean by the wrist before leaving.

“You’re the boss around here eh? You get to decide what happens to all the poor shmucks who disobey the law?” Dean asked, following along beside Mel with Rex right on his heels.

“Not all the shmucks, most of the time it's the casinos that decide what to do, this is a special case because I know you, and I know how you are.”

“How I am? What does that mean?” Dean asked, sounding offended, Mel wasn’t sure if he was actually feeling so or not though.

Mel shrugged, “Oh I don’t know, you have a tendency to satisfy your own greed in whatever way possible.”

Dean frowned, his lip twitching as if he were about to speak again but changed his mind.

The securitrons outside the station watched the three enter silently, Dean tried his best to ignore the machines gaze.

“Afternoon, ma’am.” The woman at the front desk greeted Mel, “how can I help?”

Mel smiled at the officer, “uh, I'd like to book a room for this gentleman here,” she nodded towards Dean who waved at the woman behind the desk.

“Mhm, what’d he do?”

“Uh, tried and failed to pickpocket this poor old woman, scared her more than anything really, a night here should be enough of a warning,” Mel said.  
She felt Dean’s eyes on the back of her head as the woman behind the desk typed up a quick report before standing up.

“Alright, come along.”

Dean followed the woman down the hall where she took his pistol and pocket full of stims, ushered him into a cell and closed the door behind him.

Mel wandered down the hall as the woman returned to the desk, Rex trailing along behind her and sniffing at the empty cells.

Dean was already making himself comfortable on the bench, he looked towards Mel when she cleared her throat.  
“Why’d you lie about my wrongdoings?” Dean asked with a quizzical tone, tapping his fingers against the seat.

“Didn’t want you getting locked up for too long, I know you’re an asshole but I also know you weren’t going to massacre a bunch of people with the guns in that safe, you’re a thief but hey,” she shrugs, “not like I haven’t stolen.”

Dean smirked, then leaned back against the wall and rubbed his eyes under his glasses, “what a day, huh? Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again, let alone running New Vegas, what happened to uh… Home? House, you off him?” 

“What! No,” Mel sat crosslegged on the ground now, Rex pushing his head into her hands for ear scratches, “he’s still alive, just not in charge anymore, he lives in my basement now.”

Dean hummed as if this didn’t sound strange in the least, he scratched at his neck absentmindedly and Mel noticed how his skin was paler where the collar had once been, even though the sun hardly shone in The Villa, indicating just how long he had been wearing the thing.

“So what happened?” Mel asked, “did you get bored of the Madre?”

Dean leaned forward so that his elbows were on his knees, “Oh you know, explored the place, but some things together, then, well then I left, walked until I could see the Vegas lights through the cloud and then kept on walking, thought I may as well have a look around.”

“So you thought maybe the first thing you should do here is and break into a safe full of guns and gold like a comic book villain?”

“For the gold of course.”

Mel smirked, “It’s good to see you again, Domino.”

“I’ll say the same for you, Courier.”

They sat in silence for a little while, Mel absentmindedly scratching Rex’s scruff while Dean stared off into space, or slept, Mel couldn’t tell behind the glasses.“So what are you going to do now? Got any plans?” Mel asked the ghoul, who leaned back again and stretched out his legs.

“Oh you know, no.” He smirked, “Was going to see how much I could steal- uh borrow- no, steal, from Vegas and then uh, I hadn’t thought that far, but I felt like I was overstaying my welcome at the Madre.”

“You could stay here,” Mel suggested.

“Here, in this cell? I’d rather not.”

“No I mean, at the Lucky 38, I’m in charge of who’s allowed in there and I mean, if you want a room, there’s plenty.”

“Oh!” Dean raised an eyebrow, “you’re inviting me over? At least buy me a drink first,” a smile spread across his face.

“Shut up I’m being serious, if you’re not planning on going back to the Madre for a while you could stay here, even if you want to, I don’t know, wander for a while, you’d still have a place to stay.”

Dean stayed quiet, and for a moment Mel wasn’t sure she’d done the right thing, she’d traveled with her other friends much longer before she’d offered them a place at the 38, Dean probably didn’t trust her that much yet, though she did keep all of her promise of not letting him come into too much harm during their infiltration of the Sierra Madre.

Dean finally broke the silence, “That would be, very helpful,” his voice sounded sincere, “I- thank you, Courier.”

Mel smiled, “Not a problem. It’s Mel, by the way, my name.”

Dean hummed, “ah yes, you never actually introduced yourself back at The Villa, I thought I’d just forgotten your name,” he smirked, sitting up straighter.

Mel stood up and chuckled, “oh well thanks for letting me know I’m so forgettable. I should go, let Swank know you’ve been “dealt with”.  
Dean nodded, “Alright, leave me all by my lonesome, rotting away in a cell.”

“For a night, goodbye, Domino, see you in the morning.”

“See you, Cour- Mel."

With that Mel saw herself out, holding the door open for Rex to leave first of course.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
